The deconstruction of categories of animal, human, and cybernetic organisms has led to wholesale rethinking of corporeal futures. Likewise, the increase of information-based interactions refigures interactivity in ways which seem to subvert embodied expectation. Is this in fact the case? What are the frontiers of imagining futures, and how do feminist studies and queer theory help us get there?

This seminar undertakes an examination of the speculative possibilities of feminist texts, theories, and comparative methods, with the goal of collectively elucidating innovative methodologies for analyses of literature, film, the arts, and sociopolitical narratives. Taking its cues from recent discussions of failure, optimism, and futurity in gender and queer theory, this seminar invites papers exploring speculation, futurity, nature, and bodies theough feminist texts and methodologies.